Utah's wilderness warriors reply

We’d like to thank High Country News for
highlighting Utah’s redrock wilderness and recognizing
the value of protecting this uncommon landscape. However, we
disagree with some of HCN Associate Editor Matt Jenkins’
essay which criticizes Utah wilderness advocates based on an
erroneous perception that there is a stalemate on Utah Bureau of
Land Management (BLM) wilderness (HCN, 8/30/04: "W" in 2004: Taking
stock of wilderness at 40). The effect of Jenkins’ advice
would be to forgo the wilderness movement’s dreams of
protecting big wilderness with a return to the old model of
designating BLM lands under the Wilderness Act.

The old
model entailed accepting the current political climate, no matter
how hostile, and trading away areas already protected as wilderness
study areas (WSAs) for smaller amounts of congressionally
designated wilderness. Utah activists have rejected this approach,
and chosen instead to transform the political climate through
administrative and legal gains, as well as grassroots
organizing.

This strategy has worked. Utah activists have
won protection for roughly 1.5 million acres of non-WSA wilderness
through the creation of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National
Monument and the adoption by the agency of protective resource
management and travel plans. This comes on top of the 3 plus
million acres already protected by the BLM as WSAs. As a practical
matter, roughly 4.5 million acres have meaningful
protection.

Our gains have shifted the political reality
in Utah. Not long ago, the Utah politician’s creed was
"no more wilderness!" Last year, former Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt
supported over 3 million acres of additional Utah BLM wilderness.
And a Utah Association of Counties’ effort at passing
anti-wilderness legislation stalled when some county commissioners
recognized that any statewide bill for less than 3.2 million acres
would fail, even with a Republican-controlled House, Senate, and
White House. To put this in perspective, the anti-wilderness
interests now support more wilderness than was proposed by a
pre-eminent Utah wilderness organization 10 years ago.

If
we had played the game according to the old model, we would have
designated perhaps 75 percent of the WSAs, or 2.5 million acres in
Utah, while sacrificing the remaining WSAs. The numbers mean
little, but on the ground, this may have entailed selling out
landscapes such as Fisher Towers, Comb Ridge, Valley of the Gods,
Granite Peak, Labyrinth Canyon and the Price River.

There
is still plenty to do. In the short term, the biggest opportunity
for gains will come through BLM’s ongoing resource
management plan process, where BLM will decide whether to close 10
million acres of Utah BLM lands to energy leasing and off-road
vehicles.

On the legislative front, SUWA remains fully
committed to passing the 9 million-plus acre proposal,
America’s Redrock Wilderness Act, but we are also looking
for opportunities to pass legislation that protects portions of the
pie without compromising the pie itself. For example, this year we
worked with Utah Rep. Rob Bishop to move legislation through the
House that would designate the Cedar Mountains Wilderness and
protect twice the acreage of the existing WSA lands.
We’re also participating in negotiations over wilderness
in Washington County. Moreover, we’re supporting land
exchange legislation that removes scattered sections of state land
from inside our larger wilderness proposal. These smaller
legislative gains, combined with administrative and legal
advancements, will help build political momentum for the ultimate
passage of America’s Redrock Wilderness bill.

Jenkins’ essay reinforces myths that are commonly
repeated in the wilderness movement. Frequently not understood, for
example, is that WSAs are legally as enduring as designated
wilderness; both can be undone only by Congress. And although the
Wilderness Act is the best legislative tool to protect wild places,
it is not a magic solution for all woes. RS 2477 claims,
overgrazing, existing oil leases and excessive nonmotorized
recreation must be controlled through administrative and legal
work.

Jenkins also argues that Utah activists should cut a
deal now to designate small unthreatened areas because wilderness
is "disappearing fast." But designating the few lands without any
imaginable conflict does nothing for the canyons and mesas menaced
by ORVs or energy development. It just diverts resources from
protecting the threatened areas that truly need attention.

The Colorado Plateau took hundreds of millions of years to form and
belongs to all Americans, including generations to come.
It’s not our place to become impatient simply because
times are tough. To protect the wildlife, the archaeology, the
silence, and the big wilderness that takes days, not hours, to
cross, we need to designate all that remains. And, inevitably, we
will.

Matt
Jenkins responds:

Yes, some 3 million acres of Utah
wildlands are protected as WSAs, and another 1.5 million acres in
the Grand Staircase-Escalante have "meaningful protection." But the
White River, the subject of my essay, is representative not of
WSAs, but of the unfortunate "lesser" realm of approximately 4.4
million acres of citizen-proposed wilderness, which lost protection
following the 2003 settlement between Interior Secretary Gale
Norton and then-Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt. For those lands, which make
up nearly half of America’s Redrock Wilderness Act, real
wilderness protection may be the only way to keep them —
or even just a part of them — safe. And if the White
River — one of the first areas directly threatened by oil
and gas drilling after the wilderness settlement —
isn’t one of the places "that truly need attention," what
place is?